


Stress Relief

by justdk



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-12
Updated: 2018-02-12
Packaged: 2019-03-17 05:51:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13652745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justdk/pseuds/justdk
Summary: Gansey, Ronan, and Adam let off a little steam before finals. Fluff fest featuring: shopping! cake! slime! napping!





	Stress Relief

**Author's Note:**

> Written to fulfill a Valentine prompt request for fluffy Rodansey :)

As a child, Gansey had been forcibly converted into believing in magic, fate, and the supernatural. His journeys around the world and each discovery he made confirmed his conviction, bolstered his wonder. Magic had brought him back to life but it had not cured him of his anxieties or his allergies. Gansey had come to believe that fate was not kind or cruel, simply inexorable. But sometimes there were surprises, blessings. _Benison_. That was a word Gansey had always liked. Ronan would tease him if he said it and Adam would smile fondly and say, “No uses the word _benison_ , Gansey.” Ronan and Adam were his blessings and his magic and, he hoped, his fate.

Currently they were at his side, wandering down the exceedingly long aisles of Wal-Mart. Adam was sitting in the cart, his knees drawn up to make room for their groceries. Gansey didn’t think it looked comfortable but Adam didn’t seem to mind. Ronan was pushing the cart and glaring at anyone who happened to give them funny looks. He also kept throwing random things they didn’t need into the cart and Adam would protest. “None of us eat sardines, Ronan, put them back.” “You put them back.” “I can’t reach the shelves.”

“Put the sardines back,” Gansey said. Ronan grumbled but returned the can to the shelf. Gansey reviewed his shopping list. Providing for a family of three when none of them seemed capable of cooking was a challenge. He had a suspicion that Ronan and Adam would happily eat Nino’s pizza and junk food from the gas station all summer but Gansey couldn’t live that way. Not if he wanted to keep in shape and stay on the rowing team. “What’s something healthy that we can cook in the microwave?” Gansey asked.

“Ever heard of microwave dinners?” Adam replied. Ronan smirked. The snark was catching.

“You know, I think I watched a documentary on those,” Gansey mused. “They don’t seem that healthy.”

“Some of them are,” Adam said. “They have organic and vegetarian ones.”

“Are we going vegetarian?” Ronan asked. Ronan was the worst of the lot of them. For a span of time his diet was mostly liquid intoxicants. Adam and Gansey had sorted that out but getting him to eat was still a challenge.

“We could…,” Gansey hedged, “but that would mean no more avocado and sausage pizzas. Or at least no sausage.”

“And no bacon,” Adam added.

“Well, shit, nevermind,” Ronan said, loudly. “Fuck that mess.” An old lady gave Ronan a scandalized look and he smiled, sharp as the curves of his tattoo.

Gansey decided to hurry up their trip so Ronan wouldn’t terrorize any more of Henrietta’s elderly population. Adam did most of the work, pointing out foods that they should get: Spaghetti-Os, soups, canned vegetables, noodle cups. Ronan swiped three cake mixes that could, apparently, be cooked in a microwave. Gansey was skeptical but it was worth trying. The cake, like their impromptu shopping trip, would be a nice reward for all of their cramming; with finals beginning next week Gansey had been making sure that Ronan studied this weekend and finally finished his history paper that was already over a week late.

“Okay, we have our food and other necessities,” Gansey muttered, scanning the list he had scratched out on the back of a Nino’s receipt. “Now all we need are a few craft supplies.”

“For what?” Ronan demanded. He was busying trying to race the cart around the displays the were set up in the middle of the wide aisle separating the grocery section from the rest of Wal-Mart. Adam, secret heathen that he was, kept encouraging Ronan to go faster.

“Crafts, of course.” Gansey answered before snapping, “Ronan Lynch, stop that right now, you almost took out a _child_!”

—–

“According to the study I read,” Gansey said, his professor voice droning in the warm, sleepy space of Monmouth, “students do best if they mix creative and restful activities with their studies. I did further research into what sort of activities those might be and found some really wonderful craft ideas that are good for stress relief.” He pushed his glasses up and looked around to make sure that Ronan and Adam were following him.

This was typical Gansey, researching how to have fun when Ronan could have instantly thought of several options, none of which included the pile of craft supplies tumbled on the floor in front of him. Gansey was sitting with his legs criss-crossed in front of him, his phone in one hand as he scanned some scholarly article on how to have fun. Adam was lying on his back with his eyes closed, one hand resting on his stomach. He wasn’t asleep. Probably blissed out from all the food they had made, including the surprisingly good microwave cakes. Ronan poked Adam’s face and grinned when Adam glared at him.

“Adam, are you with us?” Gansey asked. “Because if you want to nap that’s absolutely fine.”

Adam sat up and rubbed his eyes, yawing and stretching. His worn T-shirt pulled up over his stomach and Ronan caught Gansey staring, too. Ronan hid his smile and picked up a bottle of sparkly green glue.

“I’m good,” Adam said. “We can nap after.”

Gansey looked delighted with the suggestion. Ronan felt equally delighted. Nap times were the best.

“Okay, so we’re going to be making slime,” Gansey announced. “I read that it’s fun, tactile, and relaxing.” He waited to get Ronan and Adam’s approval before continuing. “According to the instructions this should be fairly simple…”

Making slime was fairly simple and very messy. It probably wouldn’t have been messy if Noah hadn’t joined them and upended the glitter or if Ronan hadn’t tried to get glue in Gansey’s hair. Gansey tried to dodge and ended up in the glitter pile with glue on his face and spilt slime on his shirt. He was doubled over in laughter when he sprang a sneak attack and rubbed a handful of glitter onto Ronan’s scalp. Which was just playing dirty. Ronan knew he’d have glitter in his hair for _weeks_. Adam sat back and happily played with his slime, showing Noah the way the colors and glitter mixed to make it look like the galaxy.

Ronan and Gansey wrestled until Gansey had to call truce because Ronan had him in a headlock. Ronan released him and they both lay back on the floor, breathing hard and laughing.

“You both suck at making slime,” Adam commented. His slime looked like a fucking work of art and he looked very proud of it.

“Come say that to my face,” Ronan challenged.

Adam crawled across the floor and pressed the cool slime to Ronan’s sweaty forehead. “You suck at making slime,” he repeated. His eyes were sleepy and warm, his mouth crooked in a soft smile. Ronan pushed off the floor and kissed him.

Adam smiled against his lips and kissed him back, his hand supporting the back of Ronan’s neck. Adam tasted like chocolate cake and Coca-Cola, like comfort.

When Adam pulled back his face was flushed and he didn’t look sleepy anymore. He turned to Gansey, who was peeling off his slimed and sparkling shirt, and Ronan eased back, letting Adam go.

Gansey looked momentarily flustered when Adam crawled onto his lap, glitter slime still cupped in one hand, and kissed him on the mouth.

“Adam, I am hardly decent—” Gansey’s protests were cut off by Adam’s second kiss. The slime was discarded so that Adam could wrap both arms around Gansey’s strong shoulders and mess up his already mussed hair. When they broke for air Gansey asked, “Am I really that bad at making slime?”

Adam eyed the abandoned project in Gansey’s bowl and nodded. “The worst. But that’s okay, I’ll share.” He looked over at Ronan and jerked his chin towards Gansey. “C’mon Ronan.”

“More stress relief?” Ronan joked. He joined them and kissed Gansey soundly before settling in behind him and kissing his bare shoulder. Gansey shivered.

“The articles did not mention this as an option,” Gansey admitted as Adam leaned over him and kissed Ronan. “But I am finding this very therapeutic.”

“Same,” Adam murmured.

—–

It was better this way. For a long time Adam could not let go of his drive to be the best, to get into Aglionby, to pay his own way, to be his own person, to do every single thing on his own with no help, thank you very much. But then he had passed out from exhaustion on the way to work and Gansey and Ronan had found him. They took him to the school nurse and Adam was forced to understand that he needed help and that receiving help was okay. The nurse, who also provided counseling, took Adam on as his personal project. They met once a week and talked about how Adam was doing. Sometimes they even talked about Adam’s family. It was this man who had helped convince Adam that it was not a blow to his honor to move in with his friends. _“Ronan lives with Gansey because that is what is best for him. It’s good for Gansey as well, he needs support, too. If you move in you’ll be lending both of them your strengths and benefiting from theirs. It’s symbiotic, Adam, not parasitic. You’ll see, in time, ways that only you can help Gansey and Ronan, just as they are helping you.”_

Adam doubted that the school nurse would have predicted that their close, _symbiotic_ relationship would have morphed into this. Adam didn’t think that any of them had expected this. Somehow the strange alchemy of the three of them living under the same roof had brought about a host of changes: Ronan stopped his drunken excesses, Gansey started sleeping, Adam felt his anger dissipate. It was like all of their hard edges were softened and in time so were their hearts. _Love_. The word remained unspoken between the three of them but Adam felt it, for the first time in his life he felt loved.

With Ronan, love manifested in gifts and touch, in being present when Gansey or Adam needed him. Gansey liked to try to fix and help, and he was the best of them at sweet talk and endearments. Adam wasn’t sure how he loved. He felt happy when he could assist Gansey in his Glendower search or join Ronan in whatever off the wall project he started. He used to worry that it wasn’t enough but somehow it was. Somehow they were enough.

It was better this way, snuggled between Ronan and Gansey. Ronan called him a secret cuddle monster and it was true. Adam couldn’t get enough of being held close. He had read somewhere that there was such a thing as being touch starved and that was what he had been, before, a kid whose only physical contact came from his father’s fists. Now it was like Ronan and Gansey were in an agreeable competition to see who got the most Adam cuddles. It was a competition they all benefitted from and it always ended like this, with the three of them together.

Gansey stirred in his sleep, his minty breath warm on Adam’s neck, his arm heavy, draped over Adam’s side. Their knees were crooked together, feet tangling with Ronan’s. Ronan was asleep facing Adam, his arm serving as a pillow for Adam’s head. Silver glitter dusted his face and sparkled in his buzzed hair. His other arm rested between them. Adam held his hand and laced their fingers together. He gazed at Ronan’s exquisitely handsome face, now relaxed in good dreams, and smiled.

Adam tried to keep his eyes open even though this shared naptime had been his idea. He liked this, the warm, lazy fall of their bodies resting together. He liked that for this space of time they didn’t have anything to do and nowhere to go. But the late afternoon sun and the hypnotic sound of Ronan and Gansey breathing was too much to resist. Adam made a clumsy grab for Gansey’s hand, pulling it to his chest. As sleep took him he thought of Gansey’s sleeping king and wondered if any favor could possibly be better than this.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on tumblr @dkafterdark


End file.
